Eddie's money songs: rocker dissects hits before Bethlehem show

Eddie Money was one of the few singers who rose up in the late 1970s — playing rock ’n’ roll amid the disco craze and punk/new wave that followed it.

Money’s breakthrough hit “Baby Hold On” was a blast of R&B-influenced rock in an era when synthesizers ruled. While his even-bigger hit “Two Tickets to Paradise” had synth flourishes, it was much more of a rolling soft rock song.

So when rock became palatable again in the 1980s, Money had his biggest hits with straightforward rock songs “I Think I’m in Love,” “Shakin’,” and his biggest song, the soaring “Take Me Home Tonight” in 1986.

That run of hits continues to extend Money’s career, and the singer, in a phone interview from California, says he expects to play all of them Sunday at Musikfest Cafe at ArtsQuest Center in Bethlehem.

The singer, who turned 65 this year, says he’s constantly working on new material. For example, he’ll play a new song, “One More Soldier Coming Home,” which he says he wrote “for these kids coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq,” and for which proceeds go to nonprofit facilities in Texas and Maryland that treat returning soldiers with traumatic injuries.

“They’re all screwed up, it’s a mess,” Money says. “We meet some of the parents and we meet a lot of the veterans coming back from the war. So we do everything we can. I’m out there actually selling shirts.”

He also recently wrote a song called “Shake That Thing,” a guitar-heavy workout, and “Ain’t No Wishing Well,” which he says, laughingly, he wrote in a Motel 6 when he was fighting with his wife of 25 years, Laurie.

“So I got a bunch of great songs ready to go,” Money says. “I got a great live version of ‘Shakin’,’ it’s incredible. I’m excited about putting a new record out — I was going to take a walk down to Warner Brothers. … see if they want their old uncle Eddie Money back on the charts, you know?”

He’s also supporting the music career of his singer-songwriter son Dez Money. And he writes songs for his daughter, Jesse, who has gone out on the road with him.

But it’s that run of hits that continues to be Money’s bread and butter. He’s hoping to get to Broadway with a play he wrote a few years back, “Two Tickets to Paradise: The Musical,” that is full of those songs. “It’s sort of like my ‘Jersey Boys,’” Money says, referring to the hit story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

“Two Tickets to Paradise” is so ingrained in popular culture that it became, along with Money, part of a 2012 Geico insurance car insurance commercial, in which Money played the owner of a travel agency.

“You got to realize, we’ve got 12 to 14 songs in the Top 100,” Money says. “And we like to go out there and sound like the record. We like to go out there and have people close their eyes … it brings back a lot of great memories. People remember where they were to ‘Shakin’,’ they remember where they met their girlfriend to ‘Two Tickets to Paradise.’ This is a great gift from God.”

Here’s what Money says he thinks of when he hears his hits:

“Baby Hold On”: Money’s 1978 breakthrough hit — it just missed the Top 10, but he says it was an afterthought. “I wrote ‘Two Tickets to Paradise’ and they didn’t think it was commercial enough,” he says. So he and guitarist Jimmy Lyon wrote “Baby Hold On” together. “It took six hours to write ‘Two Tickets to Paradise,’ it took three days to write ‘Baby Hold On,’” Money says with a laugh. He sang it on “Saturday Night Live” soon after its release and “it was incredible,” he says.

“Two Tickets to Paradise”: Though it didn’t chart as high as “Baby Hold On,” it has become one of Money’s signature songs. “I was going with a girl and her mother didn’t like me because I was, you know, a rock ’n’ roll wannabe,” Money says. “She used to go home on the weekends, and I would never see her. I wrote ‘Two Tickets to Paradise’ about having no money. I had a ticket for a bus ride to California — I was going to take a little bus ride. But she dumped me anyway,” he says, laughing. “Two tickets to paradise could be tickets to anywhere — it could be a Greyhound bus, it could be going down to the beach. Anybody could have two tickets to paradise — it’s a great song.”

“I Think I’m in Love”: After four years without a hit, Money had his first No. 1 with this song in 1982. “When I think of ‘I Think I’m in Love,’ I think of the video I did with my first wife in it playing Dracula,” he says. “And that was really great, where she turns around and bites me in the neck. I thought that was really cool.”

“Shakin’”: The 1983 Top 10 hit was the breakthrough for 1980s singer/actress Apollonia Kotero, who later starred in Prince’s movie “Purple Rain.” “People don’t realize the first professional thing Apollonia did, she was in the ‘Shakin’ ’ video with me,” he says.

“Take Me Home Tonight”: The 1986 song that had classic girl-group singer Ronnie Spector sampling her hit “Be My Baby” became Money’s biggest hit, topping the charts and getting a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. Even Money is prompted to sing its chorus — “I don’t want to let you go till I see the light” — while talking about it. “I’ll tell you, ‘Take Me Home Tonight’ was a great song and I just really hate to see that Phil Spector is still getting paid,” Money says, referring to Ronnie Spector’s ex-husband and legendary record producer, who was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2003 death of actress Lana Clarkson. “He’s never going to get out of jail and every time that song is on the radio, he’s got more money for his commissary up there. But I do love Ronnie Spector. We’re still very good friends. … Ronnie’s a sweetheart of a gal. There were shows we were doing that she couldn’t sing ‘Be My Baby,’ all the hits, because Phil Spector still had a hold on her. Can you believe that? She couldn’t even do her own hits. That’s terrible.”

“Walk on Water”: The 1988 song was Money’s last Top 10 hit. “I love the song. My wife wanted to get in the video and I used a model … that wasn’t my idea. Every time I think of ‘Walk on Water,’ I think of all the sh-- I had to take singing to [the model] and not my wife in the video. … I got locked out of the house. I don’t walk on water. But you know what? We do the song in the set really well. … When we do ‘Walk on Water,’ people go nuts. People love that song.”“Peace in Our Time”: Released in 1990, the song hit No. 11 and No. 2 on the adult contemporary chart — the last hit Money had. “It’s really a great song. The Berlin Wall was coming down. We had the opportunity to get over there and actually play that song as the wall came down. That would have been a fantastic thing to do. But my management company dropped the ball on that and it fell through. Can you imagine if I went over and as the Berlin Wall came down, ‘Peace in My Time’ we’d be doing it live? Would that have been incredible or what? Not just for the money or for the fame — for the glory of the song. The song really fit the situation: Communism was dead, the Berlin Wall was coming down, it was a really great time.”Unfortunately, Money says “Peace in Our Time” isn’t in his current set. “I’ve got so many singles I don’t know what to put in the set,” he says.